DIGITAL
Byte by byte
OMD’s Maya Bou Ajram explains to
Communicate Levant why her agency is devoted to digital and why the
full day event that the agency organized this month is a sign that times
(Page 44)
are changing.

One to watch: This
month is Communicate
Levant’s first birthday.
Let’s celebrate! Page 16

MAKEOVER
Following a recent surge in shake-ups,
we examine the changing face of
Lebanese agencies

More and more companies are talking the corporate social responsibility talk, but how many are walking
the walk? We look at Lebanese companies and see where do-gooders are
doing good, and where they are bad
at achieving their goals. (Page 32)

TELEVISION
Quality Street
In the second part of our production
guide, The Chimney Pot’s Henrick
Larsson discusses ways to achieve
the highest standards for your television commercial. Planning,
pitching and picking the proper
people are all important. (Page 36)

ife has a strange sense
of humor sometimes.
I’m writing this letter,
which will be published in
our first anniversary issue,
on Mother’s Day.
Twelve months ago, when
Communicate Levant was
first launched, I was writing
my first Letter from the Editor,
and comparing magazines to
children that you give birth to,
nurse, nurture and support until
they’ve grown up enough to
stand on their own two feet.
The magazine may still be
making wobbly steps on these
feet, but we’re getting there, as
a look back at all that has been
achieved so far shows us.
Don’t worry, I won’t go
into a self-indulgent binge
right now; we preferred to let
you tell us your thoughts (see
page 16). It was instructive,
so thank you for that. It is now
up to us to make this magazine
better, more relevant and more
constructive. We’ll work on
that, cross my heart.
But isn’t that what
everybody is thinking today?
The only constant is
change, as the saying goes.
But hasn’t change picked up
pace recently?
Look at what’s happening
within many agencies (see page
24). The industry is evolving
so fast that we barely have the
time to adapt, and so deeply
that it’s shaking our certainties
to the core.
Look beyond what’s
happening to the advertising

realm, at what’s happening to
the region and the world.
There’s an old Billy
Joel song that I love. (I
never remember all of the
lyrics, and not for the lack
of trying.) “We Didn’t Start
the Fire” gives an impressive
history lesson by recapping
major events that occurred
throughout the second half
of the 20th century.
I wouldn’t dare rise to
the challenge by offering
a recap of the past 12
months in rhyme. But let’s
remind ourselves of some
of the events that occurred
between April 2010 and
April 2011 nonetheless: the
Eyjafjallajokull volcano in
Iceland; the Pakistan flood;
China becoming the largest
energy consumer worldwide;
birth of the iPad; Turkish
aid flotilla; oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico; the end of
the American war in Iraq;
churches attacked in the
Middle East; North Korean
attacks on South Korean
island; WikiLeaks; Tea Party
in the US; revolts across the
Arab world; split in Sudan;
blasts in Russia; flood in
Australia; Iranian warships in
the Mediterranean; tsunami
and nuclear catastrophe in
Japan; war in Libya…
This helps to put things
in perspective, doesn’t it?
Going back to what one
magazine can or cannot
achieve could seem trivial, as
if I were living in a make-

believe universe, with a big
fat grin on my face; my IQ
going down 10 points for
every inch that grin spreads…
But then, that’s what
life is made of: more or
less trivial details that add
up to make our daily ride on
this Ferris wheel we call
the world.
We wouldn’t have
children (I just realized
there was no mention of
my daughters in this letter,
for a change, so this now
stands corrected), or launch
magazines for that matter if
we were to play Atlas all of
the time, fighting a fire that
we certainly didn’t start, but
that we need to live with
anyway, come what may.
Nathalie Bontems, editor
editor@communicatelevant.com

Communicate Levant I 3

Contents

APRIL 2011 | CONTENTS

COVER: The big reshuffle
24

An internal adquake is seemingly shaking
­agencies in Lebanon and beyond. The people
in charge of them tell us why, how and what they
are changing

SPECIAL REPORT: Happy birthday to us
16
20

Your words: What our readers have to say about us
Communiquiz: 12 months in 35 questions

AAA elects new board
Beirut. The Lebanese Advertising
Agencies Association (AAA) elected
a new executive board at a general
assembly held at the syndicate’s
premises in February.
George Jabbour, head of FP7
Beirut, and president of the IAA
Lebanon chapter, was elected president, with Optimedia’s Carol Hayek
as vice-president. Joe Ayache was
appointed general secretary, and Joe
Hitti as treasurer. Other members of
the board are Nabil Maalouf and
Omar Nasreddine.
On the move
Beirut. Elie Achkouty left his position
as sales director of Adline in March
and joined Yahoo! Maktoob as regional
sales manager.
 I MEDIA
Beirut. Beirut Duty Free pulled a
communication stunt on March 5
under the slogan “Take Back More.”
It used the concept of a flash mob
– where a group of people suddenly
assemble in a public place, perform
an unusual, and sometimes seemingly
pointless act for a brief time, then
disperse – in the airport to generate
buzz around tourism in Lebanon.
Several times during the day,
shops in the airport played a mix
of the famous dabke (a Lebanese

 I ADVERTISING
Drive Dentsu wins Jammal Trust
Bank account
Beirut. In the first quarter of 2011,
Drive Dentsu became the official

6 I Communicate Levant

traditional dance) song “Howwara”
and techno music, while a group of
30 dancers, hired for the occasion
and disguised as regular passengers,
suddenly started to dance, getting
the public to join in. At one point,
an airline crew joined the dance, as
did the Doha rugby team.
By mid-March, a video of this
flash mob had generated more than
half a million hits on YouTube, was
featured in the Huffington Post, and
was discussed extensively on social

media and blogs. M&C Saatchi, the
agency behind the campaign, wanted
to create “something passengers could
take back with them.”
“We just wanted to create a bit
of good news from Lebanon,” Barry
Brand, head of art at M&C Saatchi
Middle East, told UAE daily The
National. “We wanted to say, ‘Yes, we
have our problems like any country,
but this country also has a lot of vibrancy and spirit.’ It was essential we
capture that.”

communications agency for Jammal
Trust Bank. The agency’s work will
include corporate communication,
retail and tactical activities.
Drive Dentsu’s first work for the bank
was its “Bawmaret Ma’ak” campaign

for micro-credits. Using the slogan, “We
Speak Your Language,” outdoor ads
headed with titles relevant to different
micro-enterprises were distributed on
the Beirut coast, in the north of the
country, and across the Beqaa valley.
Originally written in Lebanese Arabic dialect (translated as
“Entangled? The micro-loan silkens
your way”), one message addressed
aspiring hairdressers, while another
addressed taxi drivers. These two professions were chosen to represent a
variety of micro-enterprises.
Other presentations included
bus branding, radio, print and
online banners.

Radio Rotana Delta revamps its
morning show
Beirut. Radio Rotana Delta’s morning
show, renamed Sabahak Gheir and
presented by Mireille Eid, has been
revamped. Its three-hour format has
been restructured by Swiss consulting firm Humanagement, according
to the “Triple-F” rule: It is fast, fun
and fresh, says Rotana. New segments
have been introduced, and listeners are
being asked to share their opinions.
Admic publishes new magazine
Beirut. Admic Group, which owns the
franchises of Monoprix and BHV in
Lebanon, is launching a new cultural
and female-interest magazine called
City Life. The magazine will be handled
by a Paris-based publisher.
New weekly newspaper launched
Cairo. A new Arabic-language weekly
Continued on page 8

APRIL 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

New daily in town

Beirut. Lebanese daily Al-Jumhuria,
published by caretaker Defense Minister Elias Murr, was relaunched on
Feb. 28.
Al-Jumhuria was first published
in 1986, but due to the Lebanese
Civil War, the paper folded after
several months.
Speaking of Murr’s motivation for
re-entering the field of print media,
editor-in-chief Anthony Geagea says,
“[Murr] is completely involved in politics; he’s a politician before being a
journalist, so he thinks it’s about time
to have something new in the media
market: a newspaper that is objective,
that represents the interests of the people
and the ideas of the sects, the parties,
the religions, everything.”

The key, according to Geagea,
will be to appeal to the disaffected
Lebanese – whom he claims are many
– tired of newspapers closely allied
to a political stance, or party.
In addition to having an independent editorial approach, Al-Jumhuria
has a young staff, boasting many
recent graduates in the fields of Arabic
literature or journalism.
“Not a lot of them are famous;
we’re trying to give them a chance,”
says Geagea.
Geagea believes by being “objective and independent,” the paper
can fill a gap currently served by
existing channels.
According to Geagea, the response
to the early issues has been “beyond

Continued from page 6
newspaper, Alborsa, was launched
on March 6, along with its website
alborsanews.com. Alborsa focuses on
economics, and tackles financial, stock
market, trade, general economy and
real estate news in Egypt. It comes
out on Sundays.

expression, really. We were really
astonished. On [the launch day], we
didn’t have any copies [remaining]
in the market; we were sold out.”
TBWA\Rizk handled the daily's
launch campaign.
Marie-Christine Boulos has been
appointed as commercial director
of Al-Jumhuria.
Boulos was an account director
and media manager at TBWA\Rizk
until 2007, when she joined Future
Media Services to handle the commercial side of Future TV’s local,
satellite and news channels.
Communicate Levant’s questions on media representation,
projected revenue, financial backing
in general went unanswered.

 I PRODUCTION
3D shooting available in Beirut
Beirut. Production house Né. À Beyrouth is offering 3D shooting services
in Lebanon and the region. Stereoscopic
shooting, which is available for the
first time in Beirut, according to the
production house, uses two cameras.

 I MARKETING

 I ADVERTISING
Impact’s recent work
Beirut. Last month, not only did Impact BBDO Beirut release the latest
Ministry of Tourism’s (MOT) TVC,
garnering mixed reviews in Lebanon (see Blogosphere, page 45), but
it also revamped the country’s
logo and slogan under the theme
“Only Lebanon.”
The new icon symbolizes the
sun, the sea, Lebanon’s snowcapped
mountains and green forests, all within
an abstract shape of a cedar. The typography intends to give a sense of

8 I Communicate Levant

cheerfulness and puts forth Lebanon’s
eclectic design styles. The logo has
been introduced in a TVC and will be
used in the upcoming MOT campaigns.
Impact’s work also includes a new
ad for the Kawasaki Ninja motorbike.
Based on the insight that motorbikes are loved by many for their
speed, while also appreciating the need
to emphasize the bike’s safety aspect
and braking efficiency, the agency developed the idea that the Kawasaki
Ninja “goes fast, stops faster.”
Impact BBDO was also in charge
of Samsung’s new campaign for the
electronics brand’s new 3D television.

The aim was to invite consumers to shift away from 2D to 3D
under the concept “A whole new
dimension.”
Four ambient ads were set up
in a shopping mall in Lebanon, in
which passers-by were tricked into
perceiving 3D elements (an escalator, shopping carts, a car, a bench)
only to discover that they were in
fact looking at constructions made
from paper and cardboard.
The “trompe l’oeil” operation
carried the message: “Everything
will look flat after your Samsung
3D TV experience.”

LG launches new range of green
appliances
Beirut. Consumer electronics and mobile
communication brand LG Electronics
has launched eco-friendly products under
the label LG HealthCare collection.
“People are becoming more concerned about hygiene and protecting
their families from the dust mites
that cause allergies, asthma and other
related health problems,” says Billy
Kim, general manager of LG Electronics' operations in Lebanon. The
new range of products includes air
conditioners and air purifiers.
OMT hosts media gathering
Beirut. Financial services company
OMT’s management gathered journalists
and professionals working in different media, including print, broadcast
and agencies, for a presentation on the
company’s services and its contribution
to the Lebanese economy.
Continued on page 10

APRIL 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

Zoé shoots new Kun Hadi TVC

Continued from page 8
OMT’s chairman, Toufic Mouawad,
says the company has spent more than
$10 million on advertising and media,
in addition to more than $2 million on
education, social, and health projects in
Lebanon. These were in collaboration
with Western Union and through the
“White Land Foundation”.

Rymco enforces smoke-free office
environment
Beirut. As part of its CSR program,
Rasamny Younis Motor Company
(Rymco) has announced a no-smoking
policy in its offices.
“Although our contribution is
minute in comparison to the issue of
climate change and the health risks
that are caused by smoking, we are
confident if more companies realize
the influence that simple measures
like this initiative have on reducing
environmental harm, perhaps more of
them will adopt such strategies,” Fayez
Rasamny, chairman of Rymco, says.

Beirut. Kun Hadi, a Lebanese NGO
dedicated to reducing the number of
deaths caused by drink driving and
speeding, released its latest TVC on
Mother’s Day.
Produced by Zoé Productions,
the film is based on the idea that on
Mother’s Day a mother is supposed
to receive flowers, not give them.
The advert shows a mother greeting
her sons and daughters, who present

10 I Communicate Levant

bouquets amid hugs and kisses. The
closing shot shows a woman standing
over a fresh grave, flowers in hand,
having just buried her child.
Kun Hadi’s message is one that
resonates throughout Lebanon: The
year 2010 saw just under 11,000 road
accidents. A large proportion, according to the NGOs’s research, involved
alcohol and/or excessive speed. The
majority of the victims were young men.

The estimated cost of the shoot
was around $80,000, but according
to Samy Chahine, managing director
of Zoé, the team pulled it off “basically for free.” Creatives and account
managers from M&C Saatchi, Zoé’s
producers, freelance directors, makeup
artists, lighting specialists, film crews,
actors and actresses, plus caterers,
all offered their services pro bono
to support the cause.

 I ONLINE
New information website from Lebanon
Beirut. Hounaloubnan.com, an Arabiclanguage news website has been established in Lebanon by two journalists:
Annahar’s Amine Kammourieh and
Sharq al-Awsat’s Antoine el-Hage.
The project is financed by Walid
Abou Sleimane, who heads financial
company Aksys Capital.

REGIONAL NEWS | APRIL 2011

Sky News unveils brand

Arabic News channel due to launch in spring 2012

 I MEDIA
ADMC rebrands as Abu Dhabi Media
Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi Media Company has unveiled its new corporate
brand and visual identity, and has
renamed itself Abu Dhabi Media.
The rebranding initiative includes
a new corporate brand identity, a
television commercial, the redesign
of the company’s corporate website,
ADMedia.ae, and a range of communication materials and collateral.
“Abu Dhabi Media is a modern
media company driven by creativity and innovation, yet still deeply
rooted in the heritage and values
of our emirate,” says chairman
Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei.
“Our new corporate brand elegantly
communicates the bold direction
we are taking as a company and
our commitment to our local community and culture.”
Abu Dhabi Media worked with
the Office of the Brand of Abu Dhabi
(OBAD) to develop the new identity.
The new TVC is a celebration of
some of Abu Dhabi Media’s main
brands and content, and features
employees from across the company.
The TVC was shot on location in
Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah and
Los Angeles.
 I AGENCIES

Abu Dhabi. Sky News Arabia, a 24hour Arabic news channel, scheduled
to launch in spring 2012, revealed
its brand identity at a press conference held on March 14 at Yas Hotel,
Abu Dhabi.
The station is a joint venture
between pay-television provider
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB
or Sky, which is 39 percent owned
by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.)
and Abu Dhabi Media Investment
Corp (ADMIC), a private investment
company owned by Sheikh Mansour
bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“The Middle East and North Africa are going through rapid change
and development: economic, social
and political. What happens here
shapes the news agenda, not just in
this region but across the world,”
says James Murdoch, chairman and
non-executive director at BSkyB.
“Sky News Arabia is an opportunity
for us to participate in and contribute
to the region’s future growth.”
Sky News Arabia is a 50-50 venture
between BSkyB and ADMIC, says

Nart Bouran, the recently appointed
director of news. It aims to take an
innovative approach to news coverage
and delivery, and has balanced and
credible news as an editorial focus,
he tells Communicate.
The channel will deliver news
on different platforms. John Ryley,
head of news for Sky News, says,
“We are not just talking about a TV
news channel; we are talking about
a number of different platforms on
which the content Nart and his team
produce is consumed by the Arab
World. So we plan to put it online
and on mobile applications and tablets – not immediately, but in the
months and years to come.”
“We aim to offer a new voice
to the Arab World, not just through
TV, but through different outlets as
well,” he says.
The channel will be available in
both high-definition and standarddefinition formats and is expected
to be broadcast free-to-air to more
than 50 million households across
the MENA region and beyond.

on many fronts and managed to have
a strong bonding with our clients,
and he deserves such an award.”
SMG’s Hamilton takes on global role

Dubai. Mark Hamilton, head of strategy and development for Starcom
Mediavest Group (SMG) Middle East
and North Africa, has been named
deputy chairman of the group’s Global
Product Committee (GPC). SMG’s
GPC is an internal operating body of
24 members across the international
network that aims to maintain and
enhance the highest standard of work
across SMG’s 110 global offices, says
SMG in a statement.
Australian CEO John Sintras has
been named chairman of the GPC.
Sintras will take on the role in addition to his CEO responsibilities in
Australia. In addition to Sintras and
Hamilton, the GPC includes 22 additional senior-level executives from
SMG offices around the world including China, India, Mexico, Poland,
Portugal, Singapore, Sweden, the
UK and the US.
 I TELEVISION

Mindshare declares Elie Haber MD
of the Year
Dubai. Elie Haber, managing director of Mindshare UAE, has been
named Managing Director of the
Year for 2010 by the regional media
agency. Mindshare MENA launched
the award in 2006 to reward managing directors across the region based
on criteria such as business results,
client satisfaction, and innovation.
“Elie is praised for his strong
leadership that led Mindshare UAE
to grow despite the downturn that
is hitting the market,” says Samir
Ayoub, CEO of Mindshare MENA, in
a statement. “He was very proactive

MBC Group experiences “deliberate
disruption” in broadcast
Dubai. Broadcaster MBC Group has
announced that its channels recently
experienced a “deliberate disruption”
in their broadcast on Nilesat, by perpetrators unknown. In a statement,
MBC says transmission of the channels was disrupted for several hours,
leading to the absence of sound and
video. MBC Group has condemned
what it calls a “planned attack.”
An unnamed source in MBC’s
news channel Al Arabiya says the
disruption amplified when viewership
peaked during the channel’s coverage of political unrest in Libya. The
news channel holds the perpetrators
responsible for preventing viewers
from watching its “bold and balanced
coverage of the recent events in Tunisia,
Egypt and Libya,” the statement says.

Communicate Levant I 11

APRIL 2011 | REGIONAL NEWS

Arab Youth Survey reveals strong
desire for democracy
Dubai. The single greatest priority for young people in the Middle
East remains living in a democratic
country, according to the findings
of the latest edition of PR agency
Asda’a Burson-Marsteller’s Arab
Youth Survey.
The 10-country survey was conducted by polling firm Penn Schoen
Berland, which carried out 2,000
face-to-face interviews with young
Arab nationals and expats aged 18
to 24 between December 2010 and
January 2011.
Following (and during) the political unrest in the region, another 500
interviews were carried out in five
countries in February and March.
These interviews found that while
the importance of democracy was
more pronounced, it was balanced
by a desire for stability. Support of
protests was high, as was a belief in
their positive impact.
 I ADVERTISING
OgilvyAction Dubai wins Unilever
homecare account
Dubai. OgilvyAction Dubai has been
awarded the account for Unilever Arabia’s Homecare category. Products
such as Omo, Jif and Lux Sunlight will
be added to OgilvyAction’s portfolio
of Unilever brands, which include
Pond’s, Dove and Sunsilk.
“We are delighted
to be given the opportunity to work
with the Unilever
Homecare category
and are confident in
our ability to deliver outstanding activation campaigns that will drive the
consumer to purchase our brands,” says
Richard Woodward, OgilvyAction’s
business director for the UAE.

Dubai. Advertising online presents a
number of opportunities for marketers. Apart from the measurement tools
available online, digital presents an
opportunity for users to have a visual
and interactive experience. This experience can be enhanced with multimedia
formats that take interactivity to the
next level.
“To increase interactivity and make
great wow experiences in online ads we
need to increase our proactive engagement and work on getting creatives,
media agencies and advertisers at one
table,” says Herbert Dazo, head of ad
technology at Yahoo EMEA. Dazo
spoke to Communicate after a Yahoo
Maktoob seminar in Dubai, where he
talked about the various online advertising formats Yahoo has on offer
in the region. At the seminar, Yahoo
Maktoob presented some of its latest
advertising products in digital technology, creativity and measurement.
“Bringing creative agencies to the
table with the publishers up-front not

only enables us to inspire and push
boundaries within the canvases we
offer, but it also enables us to remove
logistical issues upfront within a fastpaced environment and make great
ideas real,” says Dazo.
He adds that the normal procedure
in ad development is that once a brief
is in, creative agencies start to think
of ideas. “What we are really seeking
is that creative-agency engagement,
where they start looking and pushing
for their ideas and checking on the
opportunities with Yahoo and how
we can make them work together,”
he says. “What we are looking for is
how we take these ideas to the next
level and actually bring them alive
and think about the challenges that
are there within the technology in the
industry and how we overcome them
in proactive form.”
It takes bringing together all the
minds and parties involved at an early
stage to be able to produce advertising
that is appealing to the audience.

 I TELEVISION

says Pete Gearing, head of marketing
for th1ng in Dubai. The first commercial by th1ng aired in the first week
of March.
Sedar is one of the oldest brands in
the Middle East. The new campaign is
meant to give it a more contemporary
feel. “The new commercials mark a
step change in Sedar’s advertising,”
says Dominic Buttimore, executive
producer at th1ng. “We are introducing
a bold, new style that better conveys
the quality and range of Sedar’s innovative products for residential and
commercial interiors.”

Sedar appoints th1ng to make new
TV commercials
Dubai. Animation and mixed media
production company th1ng has been
appointed by UAE-based Sedar to
produce its television commercials.
Sedar manufactures blinds, curtains,
folding doors, false ceilings, and awnings, and has a significant retail presence
across the Gulf, with showrooms in the
UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman.
Th1ng will make 40 commercials
for Sedar over the next 12 to 18 months,

12 I Communicate Levant

VERY BRIEFS

Majid magazine celebrates
33rd birthday with new
layout, editorial additions
and characters
Saneou Al Haddath reveals
MENA region’s top cities
McCollins Media to create
“longest Facebook wall in the
world”
Euromonitor International
unveils new look and website
to mark 40th anniversary
BPG Blue to become
BPG Possible
Alhurra’s Al Youm to go live
from eight countries to mark
second anniversary

National Geographic Al Arabiya
magazine holds university tours
The Adkitchen appointed as
agency for Dubai Properties
Group
Fox Series to become women’s
channel, Fox

Go to our Web site
for the full stories:
www.communicate.ae

INTERNATIONAL NEWS | APRIL 2011

The largest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history hit the
northeast coast of the country on
the afternoon of March 11. The
8.9 magnitude quake pushed a
massive tsunami through coastal
towns, flushing away farmland and
entire cities.
Google responded to the event
much like a traditional news organization, taking advantage of its
software and data.
It created a set of tools and pages
with information about what’s happening on the ground, most of which
can be found on its Google Crisis
Response page, which includes
emergency information about the
quake and the resulting tsunami.
 I RESEARCH

Sports Illustrated tablet ads
“more memorable than print”

Ads in the iPad edition of Sports
Illustrated’s swimsuit issue proved
more memorable with readers than
ads in the print edition, and generated
more reader actions, according to
marketing and media research firm
Affinity’s syndicated Vista service.
Ads in the iPad edition generated
21 percent higher recall than ads in
the print edition, while reader-action
scores – registering actions such as
visiting the advertiser’s website, getting a more favorable opinion of the
brand or, in the case of iPad editions,
clicking on the iPad screen – were
34 percent higher than in print.
“The average percentage of
readers reporting that they visited
an advertiser’s website as a direct
result of an iPad ad was almost twice
as high as ads in print,” Affinity said.

The search giant also set up a
People Finder page, where anyone
could type in the name of people

they’re looking for who might have
been affected by the disaster. Conversely, anyone who had informa-

Most, but not all ads appeared in
both editions.

from multiple media sources daily,
and only 1 percent of localists use
digital media exclusively.
The study found that 91 percent
of localists watch local TV news
at least once a week, followed by
print newspapers, which get at least
weekly perusal by 80 percent of 1,000
localists surveyed; local radio stations, which get 79 percent; local
newspaper websites at 61 percent;
and local TV station websites at
59 percent.
The respondents had a median
age of 44, 52 percent being female,
48 percent male. They were reportedly highly educated, with 71 percent
having attended college.

“Localists” turn to TV most often
for news
Despite all the furious activity in
hyperlocal media (community news
sites), heavy consumers of local news
still turn to TV the most, along with
newspapers and radio, according to
a new Nielsen study commissioned
by the Newspaper National Network
in the US.
Local community news sites such
as Patch, EveryBlock.com and Outside.in are gaining ground. They’re
already used weekly by 38 percent
of “localists,” which the study defined as people regularly consuming
content in at least four areas of local
news: community events, community news, local government, local
business, shopping, finance, sports
and real estate.

However, only 2 percent of localists cite community news sites
as their primary source of local
news and information, compared to
49 percent for local TV, 30 percent
for newspapers in print and online, and
11 percent for local radio. Sixty-nine
percent of localists get local content

 I DIGITAL
Amazon tops value perception
rankings
Amazon is the strongest brand globally
and in the US, at least as measured
by how consumers perceive value
versus price paid. This is according to research agency Millward
Brown’s Value-D ranking, released in
March, based on surveys of 150,000
consumers in 24 countries.
It’s the first time the unit of WPP’s
Kantar Group – a market research,
information and consultancy network
– has released the value-based ranking
of brand strength, says Peter Walshe,
senior director of Millward Brown.
Well-known iconic brands, such
as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, while
among the global top 10, trailed more
utilitarian brands such as Colgate
(No. 2) and Procter & Gamble Co.’s

tion about a person could enter that
data as well.
By March 11, the database had
already amassed 7,200 records.
Google had set up similar databases
in the aftermath of the Haiti and
New Zealand earthquakes.
The company’s Twitter handles, @google and @googlemaps,
streamed information on the progress
of the tsunami as well as links to
Google Maps data, showing where
it could hit.
Google’s YouTube division also
collected citizens’ video accounts
of the disaster on its CitizenTube
channel, which shows some vivid
firsthand looks at the devastating
effects of the earthquake.
Pampers (No. 4). Digital and tech
high-fliers Apple and Google didn’t
make the cut, but Nokia did.
Apple didn’t make the top-10 list,
Walshe says, because while it ranks
among the highest of any brand in
perceived desirability, it also ranks
very high in perceived price. Google
didn’t make the list because most
consumers use its services for free,
“so we can’t measure it on the price
angle,” he adds.
On the pricing spectrum, while
Starbucks and other premium coffee brands might be more desirable overall, Nescafe globally, and
Folgers in the US, make the top 10 on
price perception.
And while Walmart bested
all bricks-and-mortar rivals in the
US, it still couldn’t best its online
rival Amazon.

We ask the industry: If you weren’t in your profession, what would you be?
GILBERT NAHAS
Head of TV production, JWT
When I grow up, I want to be a gardener. Voila!
ANNE VALERIE LAHOUD
Producer and owner, Zoé Productions
It is a question that we all reflect on at some point in
our lives, and one that I have answered, as I always
knew I would have been an artist. Dancing, singing,
writing, and all other forms of self-expression make
it so much easier to deal with inner emotions, to share
feelings, and communicate only by intuition. Personally, my intuition has already played an important role
in my relationships, personal and professional, and has
rarely failed me. This is also why I know I would have
made it, and loved being an artist. I feel an overwhelming satisfaction would have come from exorcising my
deepest personal feelings by sharing them and getting
rid of the burden of those deeply hidden emotions, by
creating something magical that can make others happy
as well. Thankfully, television production is a form of
creative self-expression in many ways, which is one
of the reasons why I am so passionate about my work,
my team and Zoé.
AMIR ANTOUN
Senior planner, Starcom MediaVest Group
I would have chosen to be a nightclub owner.
NADA ABI SALEH
Deputy managing director, H&C Leo Burnett Beirut
A cat owner. A moviemaker. A polyglot. A world traveler.
A lazy human being. A pathological lover of life. An
off-Broadway choreographer. An admirer of the human
mind. A bridge between March 8 and March 14. A breath
of fresh air. The change that never stops. The wind that
never rests. An everlasting smile. An unfinished dream.

14 I Communicate Levant

CARLA AL HALABY
Creative operations executive, Spirit ME
Ever since I was 12 years old I’ve held enthusiasm for
drums; I consider them a great way to let out all of my inner
hyper energy. I took lessons with a professional drummer
hoping that one day I’d be as good as he was and become
a member of a skilled band. I practiced for eight years,
loved to listen to and create music, got extremely attached
to the instrument, played with a band in university, and
even became a drum teacher, transferring the experience I
gained to other fanatical groups. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in advertising and public relations, thus letting
go of my old passion and working in the domain I chose.
I’m positive I would have been a great drummer if I had
continued in that direction. Mind you, I have no regrets,
since through being a drummer I was no stranger to hard
work and practice, thus making me a better entrepreneur.
RANIA NASSIF MOUFARREJ
PR director, Adrenalin Communications
“There is nothing that drives optimism more than a passion with a purpose; find your purpose” – Bruce Mae.
Luckily I have been able to find that passion, make it my
purpose and turn it into a profession. Being a journalist
for more than 17 years, and a communication advisor for
nine, I have never felt I have to go to work, but instead
feel I am waking up each morning to practice one of my
hobbies. I have always been passionate about people and
communications. My career allows me to mix these two
dimensions and broaden my perspective. In a nutshell, if
I were not a journalist and a PR specialist, I would still
choose to remain in the communication field as a publisher,
writer, TV producer or media coach.
KARIM ABOURIZK
Art director, WonderEight
I would be a food aficionado because I am a burger addict.

As Communicate Levant turns one, we ask you, our readers, what you thought of our first year

S

o here we are, celebrating Communicate Levant’s first anniversary. Over the past 12 months, a number
of you have contacted us to give your opinions on the magazine. This came as a surprise, knowing how rarely people in Lebanon take the time to write to editors. Praising or criticizing, it’s always
constructive feedback, so we asked industry players for their view as well.
Granted, we’re being a bit self-indulgent publishing these comments, but it’s our birthday, so
we’re allowed to be. We hope your feedback will help us spot where we are being – unintentionally – biased, so we can learn not to be, putting us more in touch with the market, so we can meet
your expectations.
We learned that, in general, you like the magazine’s angle and our attention to blogs, but you are
skeptical of the industry, and would like us to be more critical.
Thank you for your feedback; please keep it coming so we can continue to grow. And now, the
floor is yours.
I am an advertising student, and [Communicate
Levant] has helped pave the way to solid know-hows
of everything related to this field. I’ve enjoyed the
Web Wisdom of Flip Media CEO Yousef Tuqan
Tuqan, with his infinite rules to follow, in addition
to many of the regional news items you feature.
The big maps aren’t leaving any wall space in the
house, but they were excellent ideas. November
2010’s article, “The producers,” was eye-opening
indeed. Lastly, I was wondering if one of the sections in Communicate Levant can tackle more of
the problems today’s fresh Lebanese graduates are
facing in the media space.
Asma Aa, marketing student

16 I Communicate Levant

Nada Abi Saleh, deputy managing director, Leo
Burnett Beirut
In one year, Communicate Levant managed to prove
itself among all the magazines in the region. I think
this is due to its direct contact made with the heart
of the industry.
Gabriel Aboudaher, TV producer, Leo Burnett Beirut

REVIEW | APRIL 2011

It’s a great magazine, however I would love to
see more comment on advertising campaigns.
Maybe have professionals comment on campaigns
that are on the street. Constructive criticism,
of course.
Dana Alaywan, senior communication manager,
Allied Advertising

I was very happy when Communicate finally
issued Communicate Levant. I personally believe
Communicate is the only magazine that can update us on all media and advertising happenings
and news in a very useful and accessible way.
However, all the articles are based on opinions taken from agencies, media, etcetera. …
We never come across articles informing us
(agencies) of how the client perceives the advertising and the media and how he measures
its impact on his business. …
It would be good to read some clients’ testimonials. … It would be interesting to highlight
how digital became a need and how it started
to become part of the marketing budget and
even took a good chunk of it. (I noticed how the
behavior of clients towards digital has changed,
how it became a need.) In other words, I would
like to read about the clients and their reactions.
Reva Berbari, client servicing director, Cleartag
Although I did enjoy reading your February
issue, I can’t say I was fully satisfied. … Ad
industry magazines always shy away from exposing [the industry’s] cheating acts. Of course
I understand your position: You’re between a
rock and a hard place. On one hand, your role
is to promote the industry; on the other hand,
these agencies are your bread and butter, both
in terms of ad revenue and content.
I also blame Communicate Levant for not
investigating what the interviewees claim. [And]
what about the receiving end? The mass public viewing these ads? Where’s their voice? A
small opinion poll or sample survey of people
on the street would have boosted the articles
tremendously. My concern is to see an honest
advertising industry.
Fouad Berjaoui, marketeer
Communicate Levant is undoubtedly the leading
magazine in the Levant region for the marketing
and the advertising sector. Its newspaper-like
layout provides the reader with snapshots of
the most relevant regional news. By including
articles about key individuals and players in
the industry, Communicate Levant makes its
pieces very interesting and inspiring to read.

I usually don’t buy magazines; I read everything
online. But it so happens that I was at a café
and saw the seventh issue [of Communicate
Levant] and I remembered that this magazine
usually features what bloggers are saying. …
I have to say that it is really encouraging to
see a Lebanese magazine mention this part of
media: social media.
Liliane Assaf, blogger

The Regional and International Work selections acknowledge the marketing talent in the
world and allow people to overcome any creative
limitations. In the future, we would love to see
more visual coverage for advertising and artistic
work in the region.
Rania Bou Nassif Moufarrej, PR director, Adrenalin
Communications
I was delighted when Communicate Levant was
first issued, and since then I’ve been enjoying
every single article and news story that covers
our industry. It’s always good to know more about
fellow advertisers, clients, and ads, and go deep
into things . . . But sometimes it’s a bit biased,
revolving around two or three agencies.
Layal El Sayed, Allied Advertising
Communicate Levant is a must-read, not only for
ad men, but also for business moguls and the interested public in general. It offers a wide range
of insight and has become a reference in the advertising industry, with a welcome touch of wit.
Makram Fata, executive manager, Adrenalin Communications
I read [Communicate Levant] with interest. The
segmentation makes it easily readable. It is targeted towards very specific profiles, which limits
its distribution.
Deenah Fakhoury, Fawaz Holding
The Levant market really lacked a magazine like
yours; I really appreciate the modern format, the
quality of the writing and the content.
I’d like to see more scoops: [They would] add
some spice to the recipe. More Levant: A lot of
the changes happening in the advertising scene
[in Jordan and Syria] are not well covered.

More actual work. New campaigns: Bring in
a creative director, art director or copywriter to
talk about the monthly work. And I really wish
there was something you could do to have more
people from outside the advertising community
reading the mag. That would be very helpful
for the industry; it will make it more respected
and liked, will grow the business and attract
new, young talent.
Nicolas Geachan, creative director, JWT
Communicate Levant is a very engaging magazine in terms of advertising and social media
news. As a person involved in this field, I’m
eager to read the issue each month. I find it very
interesting and reader-friendly.
Caren Jreissati, PR communication executive, H&C
Leo Burnett – PR Division
I usually enjoy reading Communicate Levant,
as I get a good overview of the market activities in the region. The section on successful
international campaigns is a funk as it opens
our eyes to new learning.
The magazine, though, could play a stronger
role in our day-to-day life. It could become an
online tool to dig out references, and conduct
campaign evaluations and likeability studies.
And it could be more mobile-friendly now
that we’ve all become mobile monsters with
little time behind our desks.
Ziad Jureidini, client service director, Drive Dentsu
Communicate Levant comprises a solid range of
informative and constructive advertising material. It builds a remarkable exchange platform
that gathers different communication perspectives with the most recent advertising trends. It
should, however, showcase young talent, and be

a distinguished window to the advertising field.
Also, more frequent updates should be performed on the Communicate Levant website to
keep the information as fresh as possible.
Walid Kanaan, executive creative director,
Impact BBDO

I read [Communicate Levant] from the first page
until the last page with eyes wide open. It is
so rich in its content and variety of articles.
Keep up the good work and all the advertising
agency insights.
Elsa Khalil, communication manager, H&C Leo
Burnett – PR Division

First off, on behalf of Grey, wishing you a happy
first anniversary and a Grey-t year ahead. Communicate Levant has, without doubt, brought a
fresh perspective to the industry in the region
and is clearly promoting a lot of the young talent
and capabilities along with a fresh perspective
on what is going on in the ad scene in our part
of the world. I think they are at the heart of
sustaining a brighter future for our industry.
Omar Nasreddine, regional director, Grey Beirut

In a region where adequate and professional
communication references are largely lacking,
Communicate Levant has brought much-needed
industry insights to our desks by always delivering the latest news and analyzing it in a highly
perceptive manner. Communicate Levant is a
valuable resource to the Zoé team, and helps us
refocus our management and marketing strategy.
Anne Valérie Lahoud, owner/producer, Zoé

Communicate Levant is a high-quality magazine
in terms of presentation, which is an essential
tool to attract a customer at first sight. What
always catches my attention is the highlighting
of the new generation of people, the new blood
in our economy. It encourages each one of us to
come up with an original business idea.
Tina Rousse, marketing manager Perfumes &
Cosmetics, Socodile SARL (Part of Fawaz Holding)

The most effective way to tell if you love something
is when you ask the question, “Has it been a year
already?” So here I am, asking the question: Has
it already been a year of Communicate Levant?
First, and foremost, congratulations on having
dared to launch. Second, bravo for making every
section readable (for a change), interesting and
informative. Third, thank you for not having pages
of pie charts, bar charts, and area charts. Fourth,
great choice of paper. Fifth, you proved that a
publication is as good as the editor running it.
Last, but certainly not least, “chapeau bas”
[hats off] for not insulting the readers’ intellect
(for a change... again), and choosing, instead,
to use that intellect to fill some of your pages.
So, if this is year one... Surprise me in year two.
Ibrahim Lahoud, director of strategy, Brand Central

You Communicate, we Clemmunicate. Happy
first anniversary to Communicate Levant, from
the Clementeam.
Sami Saab, creative director and founder, Clementine

18 I Communicate Levant

I would say that it’s time to like Communicate.
Pierre Sarraf, founder Né. à Beyrouth
Well, it’s tough to give feedback on one of the
few magazines I am faithful to, and that I actually read from cover to cover. I’m quite a fan of
Communicate Levant, really; and I appreciate
each and every one of its issues.
In fact, Communicate Levant first grabbed
my attention because of its objective approach
– a quality that was (and still is) not easy to
find in a world of interests. Communicate is,

for me, one of those eclectic magazines where
every time I read it, I discover something new
and something interesting on any subject related
to my business.
It is The Reference when it comes to getting
updates on the world of advertising. It is rich,
yet it doesn’t overload the reader with useless
chit-chat. It doesn’t take stands or promote certain
individuals or companies to the detriment of
others. It just puts all the information out there
for us to process like real adults. And, without
being a “paint painter” (a famous Arabic expression, commonly translated as “ass kisser”), I
am honestly very happy that such a magazine
exists in the region. To this day, I still haven’t
found a better one with a similar approach and
treatment of its subjects.
Toufic Traboulsi, Independent Productions
Communicate Levant is a one-of-a-kind publication; informative, analytical, entertaining,
with a wide scope that covers local, regional
and international work. From a communication
and media professional point of view, Communicate Levant is an exciting read – contemporary,
modern, and with engaging topics. I particularly
enjoy the letter from the editor. … It really sets
the mood and invites you to explore a rich and
enjoyable magazine every month.
Reine Zeinoune, media director, Mediacom
In the Lebanese advertising market, Communicate Levant’s launch came as a fresh one. It’s
fun and easy to read. However, some of the
magazine content is built to create buzz around
it and could be harmful to the subject’s image.
But I guess this is one of the tough tasks of a
magazine editor.
Finally, Communicate Levant could consider
featuring more advertising campaigns as case
studies instead of just publishing the work.
Raja Zgheib, marketing executive, VTR Beirut

Communicate Levant is one year old. How much attention have you paid over the past 12 months?
It’s time to find out. by Nathalie Bontems

A

year has passed since Communicate Levant was
launched, but have you, dear reader, followed
everything that happened during these past 12
months? Have you paid attention? Here is a chance
to probe your memory, gauge your knowledge of
the industry’s inner workings and demonstrate,
once again, that you always know best.

3. What happened to the 63rd World Newspaper
Congress scheduled in Beirut in June 2010?
a) It was postponed due to political unrest
b) It was cancelled due to a shortage in
payments from the Lebanese organizers
c) It was cancelled due to a lack of interest
from publishers

1. Which of the following is not a Leo Burnett
campaign for Exotica?
a) A make-believe blogger called Ivy, determined to get laid by Valentine’s Day
b) A giant teddy bear that broke into radio
studios live on air, demanding roses and love
c) A poster campaign of women with banners
saying “Miss Missed Opportunity”

10. What did the visual of the Sama Beirut skyscraper ad by Impact BBDO show?
a) A pigeon wearing suction pads on its feet
b) King Kong wearing a scarf and earmuffs
c) The Beirut skyline
11. With which magazine did toothpaste brand
Crest partner for an online competition?
a) The Health Journal
b) Femme Magazine
c) Gums and Ammo
12. Who said “Marriage is something of a national obsession, and our ad just portrays that”?
a) Omar Boustany, Memac Ogilvy creative
director
b) Sami Saab, Clementine creative director
c) Nicolas Geahchan, JWT creative director
13. Which local food chain was nailed by the Joe’s
Box blog for blatant plagiarism of a Switzerlandbased Migros supermarket ad?
a) Harkous Chicken
b) Hawa Chicken
c) Tanmia
14. Which other version of the “The Manschaft
is not a beach towel” was also part of the FIFA
World Cup campaign for Le Mall by JWT?
a) “Manschaft is not the president of Germany”
b) “The Manschaft is not an adult movie”
c) “The Manschaft has nothing to do with
firefighters”
15. What’s the most important thing in a wedding
photographer’s bag, according to an attendee
of National Geographic photographer Steve
McCurry’s workshop?
a) Lens cleaner
b) Scotch
c) Deodorant

9. Which agency found its name thanks to a
Zippo lighter?
a) Fluid
b) Z
c) Ignite
QUESTION TIME. Who’s done their homework?
16. Who said “I’m not used to entering a market
by the back door, so I quickly got two plots in the
UAE, then four, even 14 at one point”?
a) Cheriff Tabet, CEO of Drive Dentsu
b) Nasser Chamaa, chairman of Solidere
c) Georges Chehwan, founder of Plus Holding
17. Which bank came up with a new financial
product that we named the “nose job loan”?
a) HSBC
b) LCB
c) FNB
18. Who described Lebanon as a big box of chocolates with a label on top reading “To open, read
instructions inside?”
a) Ibrahim Lahoud, director of strategy, Brand
Central
b) Georges Jabbour, president of the IAA Lebanon chapter
c) Naji Boulos, managing director of Memac
Ogilvy Lebanon
19. Which Lebanese daily paper was offered a free
revamping of its website by the Beirut Spring blog,
but threatened to sue the blogger?
a) The Daily Star
b) AnNahar
c) Assafir
20. Which Lebanese TV station’s head said “Yes,
we have to educate, but we also have to pay
salaries. We want to sell shampoo, detergents and
toothpaste”?
a) Roy Hachem, CEO of OTV
b) Michel el Murr, CEO of MTV
c) Kassim Soueid, CEO of NBN

21. How many times has the first Syrian conference
on advertising been postponed (so far)?
a) One
b) Three
c) Five
22. Which creative figure from a competing agency
did Edmond Moutran invite to the Memac Ogilvy
management meeting in November?
a) Becharra Mouzannar, H&C Leo Burnett
b) Walid Kanaan, Impact BBDO
c) Ramsey Naja, JWT
23. What was the name of the futurist invited to
the International Federation of Outdoor Advertising
conference held last June in Beirut?
a) Watts Wacker
b) Bart Backer
c) Harry Hacker
24. Which of these Lebanese magazines was not
launched during the past year?
a) In
b) U
c) Plastik
25. According to PR analyst Paul Holmes, consumers
identify corporations with which Star Wars character?
a) Darth Vader
b) Jabba the Hutt
c) An Ewok
26. How old is the law on advertising that currently
applies in Syria?
a) 45 years
b) 55 years
c) 65 years

28. Who said “If you don’t think the Internet matters
in the Middle East, just wait a minute”?
a) Yousef Tuqan Tuqan, CEO of Flip Media
b) Dimitri Metaxas, group director, OMD Digital
c) Microsoft founder Bill Gates
29. What’s the difference between a Tweet and
a Tweep?
a) A Tweet is a yellow bird and a Tweep is a
well-connected twerp
b) A Tweet is a message on Twitter and a Tweep
is a person who uses Twitter
c) A Tweet is a nice message on Twitter and
a Tweep is an aggressive message on Twitter
30. What was the provocative line that M&C Saatchi
came up with for Scotch whisky brand Label 5?
a) Be different and vote
b) Be different, don’t get breast implants
c) Be different, respect traffic laws
31. What’s the Geekfest?
a) An Athens-based spelling bee
b) A get together of technology addicts
c) An online event during which people drink beer

Building blocks
Communicate Levant looks at the puzzling shifts of people occurring within the advertising sector
by Nathalie Bontems

A

nnouncements have been sounding, one after
the other: This new CEO has been named,
that international network is increasing its
financial hold over its regional partner, this
new team has been brought onboard, and that
new department has been created. Nothing new
under the sun, one might say. That’s part of
every single corporation’s daily life, so what’s
all the fuss about?
Except we couldn’t help but marvel, not only
at the sheer number of announcements, but more
importantly at the coincidence of these changes
within an impressive number of agencies. It is all
happening, or being made public, in the course
of a few months, within Leo Burnett, Impact
BBDO, Promoseven, OMD, UM, VivaKi...
Let’s recap:
In December, Publicis Groupe announced that
Alex Saber, chief operating officer of its media
operations VivaKi (formerly Publicis Groupe
Media and owner of media agencies Starcom
Mediavest Group and Zenith), was the new chairman of VivaKi for the MENA region. Philip
Jabbour was named CEO of SMG MENA and
Tarek Daouk, its executive vice-president, was
given a newly created position as the region’s

chief innovation and integration officer; Firas el
Zein was promoted as CEO of Zenith Optimedia.
In January, Leo Burnett MENA announced
that its former regional executive chief creative officer for the Middle East and Africa,
Bechara Mouzannar, was now CCO. A series
of nominations and promotions have ensued
(see “Major changes at Leo Burnett," page 8,
Communicate Levant, Feb 2011).
In February, Middle East Communications
Network (MCN), which owns Promoseven
and Universal Media, among other companies,
announced that Ghassan Harfouche had been
appointed group CEO, filling the position by
the end of March.
Also in February, a year after New-York
based Omnicom took its ownership of Impact
BBDO to 85 percent, the regional network
announced its president Dani Richa was to
become CEO.
We couldn’t help but wonder what the reasons
behind such a conjunction of events were. It
turned out that they are many, and quite di-

verse. Catching up locally on decisions made at
a regional scale, trying to solve pending structural problems, adapting to the new realities
of the market, or handing over the helm of the
group to a younger generation, are just a few of
the explanations given, and they are not valid
for all and everyone.
Lastly, we wondered what these deep internal
restructurings would mean to the industry, what
they would translate into.
When a new CEO is appointed, it’s no trivial
matter; new policies, new strategies and new
faces often follow. Not to mention the fact that
with the departure of some of the men who had
been there since the early days of advertising
in the region – men often called the “founding fathers,” such as Alain Khouri for Impact
BBDO or Farid Chehab for Leo Burnett, or
others who have been instrumental in building the industry as Fadi Salameh for MCN – a
page is being turned in a sector where names
and interpersonal relationships usually play a
significant role.
The advertising industry in Lebanon, and
the region, is at a turning point, it seems. And
the men behind this – or should we say these
– reshufflings have a lot to say.

Communicate Levant I 25

APRIL 2011 | COVER STORY

The Richa recipe
Dani Richa, president and CEO of Impact BBDO, talks to Communicate Levant about the network’s
future, its people, and making the two work better together
profiles and backgrounds. Even for our different
companies within the group, the walls come down.
It doesn’t matter where the idea comes from, or who
takes the lead. What matters is that they’re working
together with a simple goal: finding a unifying idea
and activating it effectively; each one, within his/her
area of expertise, brings in the added value needed
to amplify this idea, instead of duplicating it for the
different media.
Are you creating new positions?
We have a lot of new positions, but we’re having
trouble with titles right now. There are not enough
titles and some have not been defined yet. We have
“innovation officers”, “content development managers.” The titles are not that important, but these
people integrate into the process and add value to it.

How will the increased financial participation of
BBDO in Impact BBDO translate?
We’ve become a full subsidiary of BBDO and the only
change is on the operational front, not the cultural one.
We haven’t just become BBDO; we’ve been BBDO
since 1979. The culture of BBDO was embedded in
Impact BBDO at all levels, way before the increase
of share. Look at the appointment: they appointed
as CEO someone from the agency, not somebody
from outside (see “Sweet dreams,” page 38).
Did Alain Khouri feel it was time for him to retire?
Knowing Alain, he will never fully retire. We hope
to keep bothering him for advice. But I think it was
the right time; it coincides with a milestone, the
agency’s 40th anniversary. And I think he felt the
agency and team were ready and that – I hope – he
was comfortable with his successor.
All the pieces fell in place. I know that one would
wonder if it has anything to do with the sale. But
it’s almost like everything came together because
it had to happen.
Is there, in your opinion, a generation issue? Is it
time for the older generation to let go?
A lot of agencies started in the 70s and the people
who had started them may have been in their 30s
back then. So you will probably have more than one
case of retirement; you could call it a generation
thing because of that.
With a new person in charge, changes often ensue.
What are your plans for the network?
For one, I’m not new. This is a progression that
we’ve been preparing and one in which I’ve been

26 I Communicate Levant

involved before taking on these new responsibilities. All this hasn’t been triggered by an outsider
who came in at management level and wanted to
do things differently, but by the need to adapt to the
changes happening in our industry. We’re aiming
to cope with the all these changes by trying to take
a leadership role.
Because of the technology, the consumer is in
control. This redefines everything that we’re doing.
We are relooking at our business model altogether.
Most importantly, we are redefining our recruitment
and HR strategy in order to complete our offering.
The profiles of the people we are hiring today are very
different from the profiles of the people that we had.
Can you be more specific?
Today, I’m not interested in anybody who’s working
in advertising, because we already do that and we
need to complement what we do. We are looking at
technical people who have the capability to develop
apps, at motion designers who think in terms of entertainment and contents, at channel planners who,
from within the agency and not the media planning,
can define the consumer’s journey and identify the
adequate touch points, at bloggers, people who engage
conversations on social media. These people are quite
different from your classic advertising executive.
We have people coming from Latin America, the
Far East, Australia, the US, Europe… We have one
Serbian creative director, we hired a guy from Chile,
and people are coming from the Middle East, but from
completely outside our industry – like musicians.
The beauty of what we’re doing is that it’s like a
great incubator: Put the great people that we have to
work closely with people who have different skills,

Are you considering structural changes – creating
new departments for example?
We have around 1,000 people and we sit in different offices, geographies and disciplines. What I’d
like to see is these 1,000 people working with no
such boundaries. To jumpstart the process, every
Tuesday morning I personally sit with all the heads
of the different companies to make sure that every
single one of them knows what his counterpart is
doing and looks at ways to work together. This has
been extremely successful; every new business that
we’ve approached as an integrated team has paid off.
The organic growth is very important. Clients
are referred from one of our businesses to another,
and another. A group that can offer all that in the
best of class, regardless of geography, has a winning formula.
What are the next steps?
The most important change is not structural, or opening a new company. It is the change in the mindset.
It’s having the right group of talents working singlemindedly. Now, it’s a question of building on the
diversification that we’ve done, the companies that
we have opened in the past three years, and making
it work together better.
How receptive have the teams been to this change
in mindset so far?
It’s only normal that people are territorial. You will
find resistance. And to break this resistance, initially
I had to force it. But very quickly, people started seeing the benefits and seeing that instead of protecting
their piece of the pie, the whole pie was growing.
And people are finally learning. After doing the same
thing for 15 years, it’s like a new job altogether. This
change that was perceived as a threat is now seen
as a propeller. I, for one, am learning so much.

APRIL 2011 | COVER STORY

Inner mutations
Leo Burnett MENA is restructuring, with an ambition of becoming today the agency of tomorrow

I

“ t’s a refreshing of people rather than a reshuffling,”
says Bechara Mouzannar (pictured, above), Leo
Burnett’s new chief creative officer, when asked
about the company’s restructuring. There has been a
lot goings on within the network (which is owned by
Publicis Groupe). When Farid Chehab, the former
CEO and founder of the agency in the region, announced he would become chairman emeritus and
hand over the helm of the company to Mouzannar,
it had a domino effect. “There’s always a moment
when things come to change; that’s part of any
corporation’s life worldwide,” says Mouzannar.
“Obviously, when someone is promoted, someone
else needs to take his or her place.”
Mouzannar is far from new to Leo Burnett,
which didn’t wait for Chehab to make his retirement
public to trigger this inner change. “Leo Burnett
is not changing because Farid is leaving; this new
orientation was given a few years ago. Maher Achi,
Raja Trad and Farid Chehab were all in agreement
to make the agency contemporary and integrated.
But it’s becoming more official and growing. It’s
maturing. When there’s a change at the helm of
any structure, it is only normal that a new ‘government’ will follow,” he says. However, he adds
that although the process had been jump-started
several years ago, now is the time to take it further
in terms of creativity.
“For several years, at a creative level, there was
some sort of stability at Leo Burnett, which was the
agency’s policy at the time. But there’s a change in
mentalities and, of course, all across the industry
in tremendous proportions. When a whole industry
transforms, people need to transform as well,” he says.

28 I Communicate Levant

ENGAGING TIMES. Mouzannar has a very clear
vision of where he wants to take Leo Burnett
MENA. “We want to create a fresh and insightful
company, which engages and entertains people
through innovative channels, not only traditional
media, and with the potential of actually changing the way society feels and reacts to certain
things,” he says. “We have a responsibility to the
society in which we live and we want to interact
with human beings, not necessarily through ads,
but through acts that involve society.”
Leo Burnett has long been claiming to create real campaigns for real people. “We’ve been
doing this in some briefs and on some markets,”
he says. “But now is the time to try to innovate
in each and every campaign, and take the integration even further. We mean to have more and
more participation from the public; this is where
the future is and we are organizing ourselves to
get to that.”
Part of this organization consists of nurturing “growth from within,” says Nada Abi Saleh,
deputy managing director at Leo Burnett Beirut.
“We have this culture and what is happening today exemplifies it perfectly: Regionally, Bechara
took the helm of Leo Burnett, but he had been
doing it for a few years already and there was a
continuity. Similarly, in Leo Burnett Beirut, for
Areej [Mahmoud] who was associate creative
director on P&G and local brands and who took
over the creative part in Beirut, the transition
happened smoothly.”
The mixture of new and old blood is what
Leo Burnett is now after. “It’s a change and it’s

not a change. Some people have been working
for the past 25 years and others for just a year.
This is both refreshing and gives seniority. It’s
a change, but with some constants and pillars,”
says Abi Saleh. “Take planners: Planning has been
institutionalized recently but we have boosted
the planning functions by adding to it digital and
experiential planning functions.”
The same goes for PR, says the agency’s new
PR manager Mounir Camel-Toueg. “We want to
turn our PR activity into an overwhelming and
comprehensive understanding of how communication works. We are developing as communication
people, as opposed to pure PR people. And we
plan to be very aggressive.” Again, Leo Burnett
doesn’t have an HR executive, but a “people and
culture person”, and there are no “client servicing” people, but “brand experts,” “because we
are at the service of the brand, not the client,”
says Abi Saleh. “Terminology makes a big difference to us, because it illustrates our mindset,
the way we position ourselves, and the way we
work at Leo Burnett.”
BRINGING DOWN THE WALLS. The plan is also to
erase the rigid lines between the various businesses within the company. “Integration consists
of having several departments working together
in creative circles as opposed to separate teams.
There are no more barriers. We applied this to a
few campaigns at an experiential level that we now
take as examples, but it was not implemented on
the full hierarchy and geography of the agency.
Today, we’ll make sure that all heads of creative
departments will have the skills of integrating,
conversing on the Internet, etcetera. The change is
not only bringing new heads, but also a new type
of heads, who are not only into creative excellence and strategic thinking, but also integration
and innovation. Everybody should be up to speed
on digital skills; everybody has to be aligned,”
says Mouzannar.
He adds that each and every nomination that
has been occurring for the past months aims to
fortify the humane aspect of the job. For example,
Malek Ghorayeb, who will take over Mouzannar’s
creative role regionally, was picked because “he’s
excellent at motivating people and fine-tuning
our creative work,” Mouzannar says.
Areej Mahmoud “knows how to inspire others.” Creative director Yasmina Baz will take “an
experiential role on P&G in terms of interaction
with people. There’s a trend towards innovation
and pushing the agency further, every single one
of us having a role to play in this movement,”
says Mouzannar.

APRIL 2011 | COVER STORY

Giving time
New units, new faces, new objectives… OMD stands among the agencies that are rethinking their
way of doing business

T

he fact that there’s no more “Media Direction OMD”, but simply OMD, the media
strategy arm of Impact BBDO, is not a coincidence, rather a reflection of how the agency
and beyond the industry is changing across the
board. According to Chadi Farhat, managing
director of OMD in Lebanon, two factors are
driving the changes we are witnessing today.
Transitional period. On the one hand, acquisitions are happening all over the region.
“The old generation felt it was time to
retire, and by that I mean sell their shares to
the global owners and let go of the management, all of which they were not ready to do
before. There’s a coincidence between the
interest of the networks in the region and
the will to sell of the older generation, following the latest downturn, which led them
to reconsider. That’s the reason why they’re
stepping out, allowing the new generation
to step in.”
Farhat says this transition is not only to let
new blood in, but also because at a managerial
and ownership level, things have changed.
“We, at OMD, now report to the UK and New
York. The eyes of the owning networks are
focused on us. So, in return, we need to be
up to the standards in terms of management,
offering, services and structure. But this is
for the benefit of the company, not the contrary: things move positively ahead, towards
more governance, more organization, more
accountability. You can sense the change,”
he explains.
Now or never. On the other hand, the market’s
needs, the clients’ demands and the digital
penetration have flipped the whole business
upside down. “People are connected; clients
in Lebanon know what’s happening in the
US or Europe, for example, so they demand
to be given the same level of service. As a
result, the agency has no other option, but
to restructure in order to provide for these
needs: it’s no more about who gets you the
right price, you need to hire the right talents
and get the right research to offer the right
solutions to take the brand further.”
Inside OMD, since 2010, the trend is to
move to more specializations, from being just
a “planning and buying” company to having
a specialized planning unit and a specialized
buying unit. But beyond this, the agency also

30 I Communicate Levant

created a business development unit – handling
organic growth within the company as well
as client’s development. This unit organized
the recent OMD digital conference (see page
44). A dedicated research unit, OMD Insight,
was also established.
“Before, it used to be the planner going to
get information from Stat Ipsos and submitting them to the client. Today, it’s not about
submitting data, it’s about reading that data,
translating into solutions and highlights for
the brand. Eventually, this unit could help the
market and the media. It could do consulting
for Communicate, for example. Again, it’s
not about who pays less, it’s about who gives
more,” says Farhat, adding that a special unit
was also created exclusively for Pepsi, with
a total of 11 people across the Levant.
Owning specializations. In Beirut alone, OMD
hired nine people on top of the 15-strong staff
since 2010. The new hires are all Lebanese, but
none of them were recruited from Lebanon.
“Dubai was the shining star of the region,
but when the crisis took place, many brilliant
people were looking for other opportunities,
among which the first was the rise of the
Levant market. Of course, in terms of value,
the Levant will never replace the GCC, but in
terms of excellence, creativity and expertise,
it is rising. So it was an opportunity for us
as well,” says Farhat.
This whole internal revolution was spurred
by a decision taken at a regional scale. “It
was already happening in Dubai before the
crisis and then everything froze because of
the downturn. So now we’re catching up.
And it’s not over, actually. For this year,
we have another big project on the specialization front and by the end of 2011 we’re
planning to restructure our presence in Syria
and Jordan, where, for now, we only have
affiliates,” says Farhat.
The objective is to own certain specializations on the market and “to ensure that the
clients who we believe in and who believe in
us are always with us. We can let go of those
with whom we don’t share a vision, and we
want to protect the big businesses that we
have, rather than spreading thin across the
different businesses that we can have,” says
Farhat, who adds: “The question is whether
or not the market is ready and knows of these
specializations. But we’re taking them there,
and it requires time.”

ou can’t help but feel a sense of hopelessness
when you speak to Dr. Abdulrazzak Charbaji
about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in
Lebanon. The founder and principal of Charbaji
Consultants, who is also a professor of applied statistics, applied econometrics, and research methods
at the Lebanese American University, admits he was
more enthusiastic about the topic when he started
research on CSR eight years ago than he is today.
“Sometimes you feel that some concepts are hard
to implement in Lebanon,” he says.
CSR is about how companies manage business
processes to make a positive impact on society.
Firms need to answer two aspects of their operations: the quality of their management – both in
terms of people and processes (the inner circle); and
the nature and quantity of their impact on society
in various areas (the outer circle).
A preliminary assessment by CSR Lebanon (a
consultancy launched last year to raise awareness
and enhance CSR dialogue) through its network of
connections in the private and public sectors, and
political, economic, and international organizations,
showed that there is “a significant lack of aware-

ness about CSR within Lebanese corporations. Its
implementation is still very limited, only undertaken
by a few corporations in specific fields.”
During a seminar organized by the consultancy
in May 2010 – back then it was the first initiative to be undertaken at a national level to tackle
CSR, a testament to how much the concept was
in the shadows – Nick Hartmann, deputy resident
representative at the United Nations Development
Program Lebanon, expressed concern that CSR was
not a genuine public commitment of organizations.
“Despite the advancement of CSR globally, there
has not yet been a serious national movement for
the integration of CSR practices into the business
strategies of local companies,” he said. UNDP Lebanon had recognized the need to move the agenda
and work toward the development of a National
CSR strategy, he added.
A conference will be held in Beirut on April
14. Dona Salem, its organizer, says CSR conversation is picking up in the country. But she adds that
despite her efforts to promote the conference, there
is a lack of awareness about the issue, whereas
in the Gulf countries the concept is well known.

MARKETING | APRIL 2011

CSR IN LEBANON. Ghada Hassan, executive director at CSR Lebanon, says Lebanon may be the one
country in the Arab world that needs CSR the most
because it has witnessed a lot of wars, has a lot of
inequalities and lopsided developments, and is a
country where the private sector is powerful and
the government’s role is weak.
Hassan puts companies in Lebanon into four
categories: those that aren’t aware of CSR at all;
those that are aware, but aren’t doing anything
because they think they don’t need to; those that
are not doing it correctly, or are doing it in a way
that is not sustainable (a key metric of any CSR
program); and those few doing it right.
She says awareness among the public is increasing, prompting more companies to jump on the CSR
bandwagon. But, in her opinion, had consumers been
more aware of this aspect, they would have exerted
more pressure on businesses to act responsibly.
This, however, is not the case. According to
Charbaji, Lebanese people, as products of their
environment, are corrupted. He attributes this to
Lebanon being a princely state with leaders on
top and followers at the bottom, a mentality that is
transmitted to the business world, where there’s no
separation between management and ownership.
“We are raised in a society that reinforces separation between a leader and a follower, something
that also leads to succession problems – the owner
transferring power to his son before retiring, even
if the son doesn’t have the same vision for the
company as his dad and/or is incapable of doing
the job,” Charbaji says. “When you say CSR or
corporate governance, it means strict guidelines
for recruiting, hiring and firing, training, women’s
empowerment, safety, etcetera. We don’t have any of
these because of the succession problems,” he adds.
CSR calls for the involvement of employees in
decision making, which means a company must train
its employees and give them information. “Who
from the Lebanese small and medium enterprises
is willing to give information to their employees?”
Charbaji asks. Information is power.
FACILITATING CHANGE. Holcim, which produces
cement, seems to be one of the few companies in
Lebanon investing in CSR and sustainable development; the company has its own CSR/Sustainable
Development department. “Sustainable development is an essential element of our strategy. It’s
not something we do as an extra, but it’s grounded
in our strategy, embedded in every aspect of our
business. It integrates the economic, environmental
and social impacts, which are the three elements of
the triple bottom line,” says Grace ElAzar, CSR/
SD coordinator and communication manager at
Holcim Lebanon. “CSR is not optional anymore,
especially if you really want to be competitive. We
do it because we believe it has an added value and
competitive advantage. CSR is one of this decade’s
major business issues, following the rise to prominence of environmental management 10 years ago.”
“A company should understand that it has a
responsibility towards its consumers, its partners,
and its community. It should aim for responsible

YOUNG AMBASSADORS. Schoolchildren do their bit to promote sustainable development
growth,” says Benoit Dadolle, Middle East marketing manager at cheesemaker Bel Fromagerie. He
says a company should never forget that its main
objective is to facilitate change in the communities where it operates, as opposed to just being a
commercial entity. Bel and its brand Picon recently
partnered with NGO Arcenciel to launch an initiative dubbed “Happiness Heroes,” which aims to
transform children into ‘Ambassadors of Happiness’ in their local communities by getting them
to participate in a program fostering solidarity and
promoting sustainable development. Thirty private
schools from all across Lebanon will participate
in this project. The purpose is to raise awareness
of social problems among children and encourage
them to take action.
SUSTAINABLE AND BENEFICIAL. CSR strategies
should be looked at holistically, and not as oneoff activities. Hassan says any CSR strategy must
have, at the very least, a three- to five-year horizon.
Some companies lay out their strategies over a
period of 10 years.
“For CSR programs to be successful, they must
be sustainable and beneficial to the local community,
and to drive sustainable CSR programs you need to
create a link with your long-term business goals,”
says Ferruh Gurtas, Intel’s corporate affairs manager
for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa region. “But
if you do ‘on, off’ CSR activities that are not linked
to your long-term strategy and do not involve local
partners, then they can’t be sustainable.”
“Holcim is a producer of cement, and this production has major impacts on our environment,
which we are aware of. That’s why we pay attention to our environmental performance through our
environmental management system to responsibly

NOT CHARITY. Since CSR awareness and implementation are still in their primitive stages in Lebanon,
many companies confuse CSR with charity.
UNDP’s Hartmann stressed during his speech
that local companies should move away from random philanthropic contributions and instead take
an in-depth look at their internal processes and the
communities in which they operate to strategically
lay down the basis of a mutually reinforcing plan
that will both contribute to the sustainable development of their communities and lead to long-term
profit and corporate sustainability.
Charbaji says companies in Lebanon make a
lot of donations for a variety of reasons – religious,
PR, or just out of goodwill. But this, according
to him, is not CSR. “Donations are not bad, but
they’re a cost; CSR is an investment, not a cost.
We are talking about something that has a return
in the long run; you don’t just pay and it’s over.
There’s a big difference.”
Hassan agrees. “Some companies think they’re
doing their CSR homework by donating money.
We encourage this on a personal level, but on a
corporate level it has nothing to do with CSR. The
most important thing about CSR is sustainability, and charity is not sustainable.” She suggests,
however, that companies invest donation money
to improve lives – such as building factories and
financing projects that help create jobs. This leads
to sustainable development as it boosts productivity
and income, and has a long-term benefit.

Leila Koleilat, communications manager at
health care company Roche, says even if a company wants to do charity by sponsoring a specific
NGO, it can do more than just helping out with
the monetary aspect. “The NGO needs to grow,
it needs exposure, empowerment, education, and
orientation for it to be strong enough,” she says,
adding that Roche doesn’t just give money to organizations; it teaches them how to operate and
invites them to global congresses to exchange
experiences with NGOs.
ElAzar says one of the challenges her CSR
department faces is not falling into the donations
trap. “Our CSR approach is not philanthropic, but
rather a strategic approach, through which we focus on improving the quality of life of all of our
stakeholders – the members of our workforce, their
families, the communities around our operations,
our customers and our suppliers. Years ago it was
harder for people to understand this concept. Now
we explain the reasons behind our strategy through
dialogue and initiatives in the local communities.”
According to ElAzar, Lebanon does not lack
sources of donations, so much as investments in
projects with long-term objectives and projects that
serve the needs of specific communities. “Today
we receive fewer requests for donations, and we
still say no to a lot of those that we get.” She adds
that donations are not wrong, but they’re not CSR.
GOING GREEN. In addition to donating to charity,
a lot of Lebanese companies have been “going
green” in an attempt to “adopt the environment”
as part of their CSR program.

MARKETING | APRIL 2011

it is to sell in a responsible way,” Dadolle says.
“In the case of the Happiness Heroes initiative,
the communication is done only in schools. If the
objective were to sell more, then we would have
communicated at points of sale in order to touch
consumers’ heart and influence their purchasing.”

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? During CSR Lebanon’s
seminar, Mohammad Baasiri, vice-governor of
the Lebanese Central Bank, urged companies to
embed CSR in their businesses, saying this will
help reduce costs, increase profits, encourage shareholder stability, and employee loyalty, as well as
improving brands’ reputations.
Hassan says there are both tangible and intangible benefits to implementing a CSR strategy. “When a company is socially responsible
towards its employees and able to retain its
workforce, that’s a gain, but it’s an intangible,
unquantifiable gain.”
Many companies have separated their CSR units
from their marketing units. “CSR programs must
not be tied directly to sales. Intel is very sensitive
about this topic and there is a clear organizational
separation between the corporate affairs group,
which runs the CSR programs, and the sales and
marketing group,” Ferruh says. However, according to him, some companies do CSR to enhance
their reputation.
“In Lebanon they still look at CSR from a
marketing point of view,” Hassan says. “CSR
is handled by the communications department,
whereas there should be a separate department
to take care of it. Usually the communications
department has a limited budget, so when CSR is
part of it, only a small part of that limited budget
goes to it. In addition, when anything is done,
it is from a marketing point of view, and not a
sustainability point of view.”
“The objective of CSR is not to sell more;

MOVING FORWARD. Charbaji finds hope in sustainable education, as he thinks it’s the only way
to reform a society and make it ready to absorb
concepts such as CSR and sustainability.
“You go to the kids; you teach them how
to like each other; you try to eliminate the
stereotyping that plagues our society; you give
them corporate values such as green environment, human rights, equality, indiscrimination,
etcetera. This way, if they fight, they won’t burn
tires and pollute the environment.”
He says many of the corporate values may
contradict some of their already inherited social
values, but this is the best way to develop better
citizens, better managers, and better leaders.
“We should teach them CSR and corporate
governance before they become employees,” he
says. “We live in a world where success is no longer
determined by just stock prices, profits, deposits,
and asset balances,” wrote Khaled Kassar, founder
and CEO of CSR Lebanon, in CSR Lebanon’s first
newsletter in June 2010.
“If our yearly financial reports are not complemented
with social reports that make us proud, our business
is missing something of great importance, and our
future as companies will be subjected to social and
environmental risks that we can no longer ignore
in the world, and in Lebanon in particular.”
As Fadi Ghandour, founder and CEO of Aramex, an advocate of CSR, Tweeted last month,
“The social responsibility of corporations is not
a luxury or a PR job, it is believing that investing
in society is a matter of survival.”

Dany Aouad, general manager at IB2, the
agency that created the Happy Planet campaign
for BankMed, attributes this to the global ecofriendly trend, with different companies trying
to tackle this cause. However, he cautions that
the intention should not just be in campaign
messages. Aouad says BankMed has been
undertaking a lot of activities to bring its green
message to life. It is starting recycling programs
and working on eco-friendly power systems. Bank
Med has also installed solar panels at a school in Akkar,
offered the ministry of environment a hybrid car,
cleaned beaches, planted trees, and organized seminars
and workshops.
According to Koleilat, environment is the CSRrelated subject that the public is most aware of.
But she’s hesitant to believe there is significant
implementation taking place beyond the slogans
and marketing messages.
“We’re going green; so what?” says Hassan.
She admits that a lot of companies have decided to support the environment, but questions if
anything tangible is being done. “In some organizations the employees don’t even know their
companies have gone green, with the management not taking the effort to educate their staff
on simple yet important issues such as switching off lights, shutting down PCs, etcetera.” She
says planting a tree in front of a company’s headquarters or banning smoking inside a bank’s branches
is not CSR.

The Chimney Potâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Henric Larsson explains how to maintain top-notch production standards

A

fter tackling the issue of budget, Henric Larsson, CEO of Sweden-based post-production
house The Chimney Pot, explains in this second
chapter of a three-fold guide how to boost the
quality of your production project.
SPEND MORE TIME ON OFFLINE. Usually your
storytelling depends more on your offline than
on your visual effects (VFX) shots. Do not try to
put shots in order according to your storyboard.
Try to change the order, to exclude scenes, etc.
If you have alternative takes from the set and an
experienced offline editor, you will be amazed
by what he can do with your material. I often
hear that local editors on new markets are not up
to standard, but I think the issue is more about
trusting them and giving them the opportunity and
freedom to play around and try things. And a really
good television commercial (TVC) always goes
through a long and creative offline editing process.

HENRIC LARSSON.
CEO of The Chimney Pot

36 I Communicate Levant

BE OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS; DO NOT CONTROL
YOUR POST HOUSE TOO MUCH. Just because you
were expecting something else, that does not

mean your idea is better. If you do not let your
local post house surprise you, they will never
impress you.
Some clients tend to control every step of
the process, which gives them a final product
that is 90 percent of what they expected â&#x20AC;&#x201C; since
you can never control somebody to do something 100 percent the way you would have done
it yourself; there are always unknown factors.
But if, instead, you get your local artists to feel
involved in the project and their input is valued,
you will get a loyal team, as well as new ideas.
Post-production artists are very creative and can
add a lot to your project if handled the right way.
If you are willing to accept that, sometimes,
you may not appreciate everything presented
to you, you will, in the long-run, end up with
TVCs that look like 150 percent of what you
expected at the start.
WORK WITH INTERNATIONAL FREELANCERS. We
all work on an international market, and artists
travel all around the world to be inspired and
learn from others. In the post-production industry, artists usually go to London and LA. The

PRODUCTION | APRIL 2011

willingness to travel for inspiration is something
you, as a client, can use. There are tons of senior
VFX artists around the world that would love
to travel and do a freelance job. They do not
care about the budget; they just want to get out
for a month or two. If the job does not take too
long, you can get some of the best stars, guys
with Hollywood blockbusters on their CV, for
your next job.
Of course, there has to be more of a creative
challenge than just producing a 3D pack shot,
but stars are willing to come to you, and not
only for the professional challenge.
Next time, ask your post house to get a senior
VFX supervisor or art director to join the team.
You will benefit from it and so will your local
post supplier, who will learn a lot from working
closely with somebody with this level of skill
and experience.
However, you need to keep in mind that these
artists are senior. You cannot tell them what to
do in detail at every step. Another obstacle when
working with international artists in this region
is the constant change and feedback that make
some jobs go on forever. Then the artists might
not stay until the finish; they have to go back
home at some point. But if you use them for art
direction, you do not need them to supervise small
tweaks of the TVC right up to the finish line.
WORK IN HD. There is no reason not to finalize
your commercials in HD today. You can consider
finishing them in standard definition only if you
are doing very advanced 20-layer VFX shots.
Always demand that your film is finalized in HD,
and that you get a HD master of it so that only
at the end, when your post house delivers to the
TV stations, should the film be converted from
high definition or standard definition. Working
in HD will give you a superior end product as
long as you’re careful on how your post house
down converts from HD to SD. Too many people
use very advanced processes focused on keeping
details crisp, which gives you artifacts such as
aliasing and a very digital-looking picture. Make
sure to quality control the standard definition
master before it goes out for broadcast.
LET POST HOUSES PITCH ON THE JOB. Being loyal
to your post-production partner is something to
value. Long-term cooperation will give you the
needed support on special projects, plus a supplier that understands your needs and demands.
On the other hand, you will get a better end
result if you are willing to let a couple of post
houses pitch on the job. If it is a more complex job
than just a one-day work in a Flame compositing
station, you can benefit hugely from letting two
or three post houses pitch. Give them all a budget
so you do not just put them against each other
to get the price down. Let them instead tell you
how they plan to execute the job, and who will
be in the team. Let them send you references
and mood boards for inspiration, etcetera. It will

RIGHT TAKE. Planning and attention to detail are key when shooting a film
put the post houses on their toes, which is good
for you and your project.
TRUST YOU LOCAL POST HOUSE; DO NOT TAKE
ALL THE BIG JOBS ABROAD. I too often hear that
“local post houses are no good, so we take all the
big jobs abroad.” What if all local ad agencies
argued the same way and never gave any decent
jobs to local production companies? There is, of
course, what I call “agency tourism,” meaning
that agencies love setups which allow them to
travel to warmer places for shooting, or to cool
cities for post. This being said, they still do a
lot of jobs with local production companies that
sometimes decide for themselves that they do
not want to stay for post.
Your local post-production partners probably
knows how to realize your visions, since they
have the tools and can exchange experiences
with others. They also read stuff online. They
might not have done exactly the type of VFX
you demand, but there is always a first time for
everybody, and it does not mean they are not
able to handle the job. Trust them and they will
deliver. Just demand frequent approvals at each
step, so that early in the process you’ll be able
to see if it is going wrong.
If all production companies and ad agencies
start entrusting local post houses with challenging
jobs, the industry will grow and improve, and
you will soon see local shops doing work you
never expected a local supplier to do.

Communicate Levant I 37

APRIL 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Q&A

Sweet dreams

Andrew Robertson, president and CEO of BBDO, tells Communicate how his agency is taking digital
to heart, making moves in market share, and turning television back on by Austyn Allison

A

ALAIN KHOURI.
Chairman emeritus of Impact BBDO

38 I Communicate Levant

t the start of February, against a backdrop of
riots in Egypt, regional advertising network
Impact BBDO celebrated its 40th birthday. At a
dinner for staff and guests in Dubai, where Impact
BBDO is headquartered, founder and CEO Alain
Khouri handed over his title and the running of the
business to its president, Dani Richa, and took a
step back to become chairman emeritus.
The transition had been two years in the making.
As part of Khouri’s meticulous succession plan,
Global holding company Omnicom Group has taken
majority ownership of Impact BBDO – which also
holds interests in buying network Omnicom Media
Group. One year ago, New York-based Omnicom
raised its ownership of Impact BBDO to 85 percent.
One of the speakers at the birthday/hand-over
dinner was the president and CEO of BBDO Worldwide, Andrew Robertson (pictured, above), who
has been at the company’s helm since 2004.
Communicate caught up with him before dinner
to find out how business looks abroad and at home,
how his network would tackle a volatile Middle
East, and why he’s tipping TV for a comeback.

How’s BBDO’s business?
Strong. We had a very good 2010. In terms of
our product, we maintained the standard we set
for ourselves, which is to win at Cannes, to win
the Gunn Report, and to win the One Report.
We won the One Report for the third year in a
row, the Gunn Report for the fifth year in a row,
and Cannes for the fourth year in a row. So, in
a year when we could have been forgiven for
taking the foot off the gas a little bit, we didn’t.
I’m very proud of that.
We had 22 agencies around the world that
won their local agency of the year award, which
is a very, very good number. We were the most
awarded agency at effectiveness awards in more
than 20 countries, which is a very good thing. We
have won every single global pitch that we’ve
done in the past 12 months, and we grew with a
lot of our existing clients, so I feel good about
2010, and I feel that we laid the foundations in
2010 for a strong 2011 as well. We’ve got some
very solid foundations from 2010 that will help
us in 2011.

DEPARTMENTS | APRIL 2011

You measure a lot by awards.
We set out our stall based on the quality of our
work; we believe that is the most significant way
we can add value to our clients’ businesses and
differentiate ourselves from our competitors. We
add value to our clients’ businesses because these
days – and every single day this becomes more
true – the only way of dealing with the attention
economy is with creativity, the magical ability
to attract and hold the attention of an audience
while you give them an experience that changes
what they do. That’s the business we’re in, and
it gets more valuable every single day because it
gets harder every single day, and it is much more
about the attention rather than what you buy. So
that, we believe, is terribly important.
One of the things you have to do is benchmark the quality of your work against all of your
competitors. And no matter how imperfect they
are (and I don’t for one minute suggest that they
are perfect), the major creative awards shows are
a pretty good way of doing that.
When you have, as they did here, a film for
Mercedes that goes into Cannes, it’s competing
with every other agency on the planet for a Lion.
So if you win one, you’ve done a pretty good job.
The institute of practitioners of advertising in
the UK, which has by far the best and most rigorous effectiveness award scheme on the planet, has
done an analysis going back over, I think, 20 years,
of IPA effectiveness awards. It has shown that of
all the campaigns that won effectiveness awards,
those that won creative awards were, on average,
11 times more effective than the ones that didn’t.
So they’ve actually been able to quantify what
I believed to be true: Exceptional work generates
exceptional returns and tends to get awards.
Where do you see growth coming from?
I have always taken the view that even when you’re
the size of BBDO, your growth is driven more
by your market share than it is by the market.
This is a tremendously fragmented business, and
the leverage is far more in our ability to develop
the clients that we have and win clients that we
don’t than it is on floating in on a tide or sinking
on an ebbing tide.
Throughout the recession we had very strong
performances in places such as France and the
UK, which were very depressed markets; we
had a fantastically strong performance in the US
in 2010. In Asia we’ve been growing. Australia
and New Zealand are very strong, and Brazil has
been spectacular. We’re seeing growth where we
have good companies doing good work; it’s as
simple as that.
Where does this part of the world fit in?
Impact BBDO had a good 2010, and is also, I
believe, looking strong for 2011. The business
did a good job of keeping clients where there
were a couple of sticky reviews. But we kept the
business. There’s been quite a lot of new business
added, and the pipeline is strong across the region.
The development of business with existing
clients is very, very good, and frankly that’s the

TAKE OFF. Impact won a Cannes Lion for its work with Mercedes
most satisfying thing to see, because that doesn’t
happen unless you are doing a decent job on them
day in, day out. So that looks good.
And the work is good. Impact BBDO Dubai
won the first film Lion at Cannes that has ever been
won by a Dubai agency [a Silver for “Emirates
Take Off” for Mercedes-Benz]. We had our best
ever Lynx, even though we weren’t the agency of
the year. Nobody beat us in the GEMAS Effies effectiveness awards. The quality of the work being
done here is very good, so I’m pretty optimistic.
How much of the work that you’re doing now is
digital?
We try not to think of it in terms of digital, but
everybody always asks the question, so I have to
know the answer. If you look around the world,
about 23 or 24 percent of our business, measured
by revenue, is digital.
It’s lower here. It varies by country a lot in
the Middle East, just because the penetration of
Internet – and in particular the penetration of
broadband, which is what really drives it – varies dramatically. One of our goals for 2011 is to
learn to dream in digital.
Dream in digital?
We don’t see digital as a medium or a platform
or a technology. We see it as a language, a language you use to communicate ideas and create
experiences that change what people do. But it
has its own syntax and grammar that’s different
from some of the other languages we work in.

Communicate Levant I 39

APRIL 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

WINNERS. Impact BBDO client Doritos picks up the GEMAS Effie award for the Best Youth Marketing Campaign
When you’re learning a new language, there
are three levels you work through. The first one
is: I can understand you, but I can’t speak. The
second one is: I can understand you and I can
speak. But you know you’ve mastered a language
when you wake up in the morning and think, oh,
I was dreaming in Spanish, or I was dreaming
in French, or I was dreaming in Arabic.
And the challenge for us is to get to a point
where we are dreaming in digital all of the time
– that level of mastery of the language, across
all of our companies, in all disciplines. That’s
what we’re working towards.
What other big trends do you see?
In parallel with that, I’ve got to tell you, I’m
also encouraging everybody to rediscover the
magic of television. In the last quarter it suddenly
became acceptable again to say “TV is great.”
For five years, at least, you’ve sounded like you
were advocating creationism, or something like
that, by saying television had a role to play in
life, because it’s been so not fashionable.
But two things have happened: One is that
the recession has caused an awful lot of agencies and clients to be a little bit more rigorous
when they examine what is driving business and
what isn’t. Lo and behold, television is still one
of the most powerful forms of communication
there is for driving business.
Secondly, in the last quarter, Nielsen kind
of made a big deal out of data that showed that
television viewing among all age groups is on
the up. So the conventional wisdom, that the

40 I Communicate Levant

Internet is eating television alive, is just not
true. And it hasn’t been true for the past five
years; it’s just been impossible to say.
As a consequence of that, one of the things that
happened is if you look at the quality of television
advertising, I don’t think it is quite as strong as it
was a few years ago. It’s not because the ability
isn’t there; it’s that I think a little bit of the focus
was taken off it. So we’re putting that back on.
Will political upheavals in the Middle East affect you?
There are things that are way outside our control,
so the question is: How do you mitigate the damage
and how do you create some kind of opportunity
out of it? As weird as that may sound, it’s not crazy.
The first thing you do is make sure your people are all right. The second thing is to help your
clients. For a lot of clients, this is a difficult time.
Some of them, if they’ve got retail outlets or ATM
machines, are having a rough time at the moment.
But, importantly, you plan for what you are
going to do the day it gets better. And it’s very
interesting when you talk to the guys from Lebanon who say, “We’re used to this.” They say,
“We’ve seen this movie; it changes, but we
know what happens. You go into it, everything
shuts down for a period of time, then everything
opens up, and when it opens up, if you are prepared,
if you’ve got good programs in place and ready
to hit the ground running, then you can gain
share and do all sorts of things. You can gain
share for your clients and with your clients, if
you play your cards right.” That’s what we’re
going to be doing.

APRIL 2011 | DEPARTMENTS

Q&A

Making news

RMS boss says proposed Rotana channel could break even in five years – if it gets its focus right
by Nathalie Bontems

R

otana Media Services’ president Nizar Nagro
tells Communicate Levant what he sees the future
holding for the Rotana Group
What media does RMS currently represent?
Rotana, of course, as well as Fox and LBC Sat. And
three years ago we established a radio station, Radio
Rotana Delta, based in Lebanon. RMS was launched
in 2004 as a company selling media advertising; [in
terms of business volume] we already come second
after Choueiri Group regionally, but our target is to
become number one, maybe by next year.
What developments are in the pipeline?
We are investing in new programs for LBC Sat. On
top of Star Academy, we have 11 new shows, such
as Top Chef, a high-quality production that we shot
in the Atlantis hotel, Dubai, and Celebrity Do It.
We believe in investment, and in high quality on
the production side.
As RMS, we are looking for more media to
represent – we have no outside clients for the time
being – but our priority remains to better establish
our existing media. Our objective is to make sure
that Rotana, LBC Sat and Fox are among the region’s
top-10 TV stations. So far, these three are part of
that list; we expect to have four stations in the top
10 within the next two years.
We may also launch a new TV station in Egypt.
There are 80 million people in that country; marketing
is improving every year there and the infrastructure
is available. But investing in Egypt is not easy.

42 I Communicate Levant

What about the upcoming television news station
that Rotana wants to launch?
It is supposed to be launched around October 2011,
maybe from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, or Qatar. This
decision hasn’t been made yet. We are looking, in
terms of criteria, for a profit center, facilities and
freedom. Our main market will be Saudi Arabia and,
for the first phase, we’ll broadcast only in Arabic.
What will it be called?
We haven’t taken a final decision on the name yet.
With competition including Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera,
this specific segment – television news – seems
cluttered. Why launch another news station?
We will differentiate ourselves by being more
local, by looking at local issues with a positive
perspective, which is [Rotana owner Prince Al
Waleed Bin Talal’s] way with everything. We won’t
go to extremes, but we won’t be in the middle
either. We’ll support the culture, but there’s no
political agenda behind this station. To be clear:
We want to become a major player, and we plan
to be profitable.
How do you plan to be profitable? That’s quite rare
for a news station.
Business people believe in consultants, so we hired
McKinsey and Booz Allen Hamilton. We also requested research from TNS and Ipsos. Our research
shows that it is possible to break even in five years.
We’ll target the banking sector, real estate and so

on, both at a local and at an international level. The
station will be fully owned by Prince Al Waleed,
and it will have the support of Rotana – of which
Al Waleed still owns around 90 percent. We hope
that people meters will be launched in KSA by
the time the station starts; they have already been
approved, and this will help us tremendously.
What investment will be required to launch the
station and then to operate it?
We’ll invest $200 million in the station, and our
yearly operational costs are estimated at $70 to
$80 million.
The fact that another news station, Future News,
may soon be shut down doesn’t worry you?
Future News should continue; it belongs to one
of the largest groups [the Hariri Group] in the
region. Maybe it focused on the wrong places,
targeting all Arabs across the region. This leads
to a mix of clients, and a lot of clutter. Fox News,
by contrast, makes money because it has only one
target: the US market. And maybe Future News
was not expected to make money; maybe profitability wasn’t its main drive, whereas it is ours.
What is the role of Lebanon in all this?
Lebanon is very important in terms of high-quality
production. We have a 150-person team in Lebanon, not to mention the 400-strong staff of LBC
Sat and its production company PAC. Lebanon is
more of a kitchen than a market.

hether it is the current political and economic
events taking place around us, the increased
access driven by government investments in
wireless connectivity and richer connections,
the era of mobility enabled by smartphones and
gadgets, or the social nature of humans, which
is enhanced further on the “very social” Web,
the Internet has proven to be an integral element
in the lives of people today.
For such a small medium that makes up
barely 4 percent of total regional investments,
the potential and implications for marketers

44 I Communicate Levant

and agencies are huge. Internet penetration is
growing year on year. Regionally there are 70
million Internet users, accounting for 30 percent
of the population. By 2013 this is expected to
increase to 100 million. In Lebanon, there are
1.5 million Internet users (a 36 percent penetration rate) – 60 percent of whom access the Net
daily for three to six hours.
The role of social media in this region is
becoming too influential to be ignored, both
politically and commercially. The most recent
example is the role Facebook played in the
Egyptian revolution, driving millions to the
streets to demand their freedom. What started
out as a site to connect people and keep them
updated grew into a social phenomenon and
enabler of change.
The ability of social media to reach out,
influence and prompt action is applicable to
brands as well. Commercially it is best showcased in the renowned Old Spice campaign “The
man your man could smell like,” where social
media success was translated into sales with
an overall increase of 107 percent in the last
month of the campaign.
Furthermore, technologies are offering
brands unique solutions to enhance consumers’ experiences. Imagine having your fridge
update you on the groceries you need; imagine
pointing your phone down Gemmayzeh Street
and getting an update on the names of the
pubs and the promotions they are offering; imagine being present and participating in a live
TV game show from the comfort of your own
home. Imagine no more. These technologies
are rising.
At OMD we view digital as a medium that
adds value to our clients and offers them effective
and cost-efficient solutions to their campaigns.
The Hello World Digital Seminar held earlier this
month is part of our commitment to our clients
and partners to develop the digital specialization in the industry. Internally, plans are in action to extend our digital unit to encompass the
Levant region. Accountability measures are also
being commissioned to shed more light on the
online habits of the Levant consumer so that
we establish a culture of measurement, learning
and refinement for our ongoing development.
Digital is indeed the future. It is shaping
our behavior, it is enhancing our communication and bringing new rules into play. While
in the Levant digital is still in its developing
stage, it is our duty as agencies, researchers,
and marketers to dive deeper into that field and
explore its limits – only then will we be able
to fully embrace its potential.

DEPARTMENTS | APRIL 2011

Blogosphere
L

ebanon’s blogosphere is probably one of the most vibrant digital scenes in the region. Lebanese bloggers are many, dedicated, and very, very outspoken.
Agencies are now turning to social media and online communities, listening intently to this direct feedback on how they are perceived. Here is what
increasingly influential Lebanese bloggers – inside and outside of our borders – have to say about local work and news.
THEY’RE LISTENING, AND WATCHING. This month, Lebanese bloggers were busy bees that kept the web buzzing about so many issues that it’s difficult
to choose where to start: politics, that goes without saying, both local and regional; the tsunami in Japan; Libya, and so on… The “spontaneous dance”
at the Beirut International Airport, supposedly a flash mob event that eventually turned out to be an ad for the Beirut Duty Free (see News, page 8), got
tons of free coverage. However, this month we chose to focus on the latest campaign for the Lebanese ministry of Tourism, by Impact BBDO, that drew
mixed reviews. Here is what some bloggers said.
Danielle’s post on the “Lebanon
Blues” campaign is rather neutral,
featuring Impact BBDO’s insight.
But it generated instructive
comments on how the ad was
perceived. “Maybe I’m more
angry at the people who allow
such an ad to associate itself
with us as Lebanese rather
than those who made it,” says
one commenter.
http://thisisbeirut.wordpress.
com/2011/03/11/the-lebanon-blues/

Abir on Life in Still Motion screams
“Shame on the Lebanese ministry
of Tourism.” “What’s with the
low, crappy fail and disgusting
mind who approved such
an ad? Dear (not so much)
minister of Tourism, seriously?
You believe that sex sells to
that extent? […] With so many
good write-ups, stories and
blog posts about Lebanon,
that’s all that you could come
up with?”
http://abzyy.com/?p=669

Mustapha offers yet another take
on the controversial campaign,
saying: “To me this campaign
is not bad because of sexism
or bad acting and execution
(though all these things are
true). I think the ads are bad
simply because they preach
to the converted. Only those
who already like Lebanon will
like the ads.”
h t t p : / / b e i r u t s p r i n g. c o m /
blog/2011/03/11/new-tv-campaignto-promote-lebanon/

On Ivy Says, Ivy presents
“Lebanon’s First Semi-Topless
Magazine Cover,” i.e. the
magazine Nadine that featured
Aline Skaff, the Lebanese
wife of Ghaddafi’s son, with
an “interesting” cleavage on
its cover. We cannot help but
wonder how this went through
censorship. And you simply
cannot not check it out.
http://ivysays.com/2011/03/09/
lebanons-first-semi-toplessmagazine-cover/

On our Drive By this month (see
page 50), the blogger mentions
lingerie store Diamony’s billboard
ad for the Oroblu tights brand.
Tarek gives his own interpretation
of the ad, and goes down
memory lane to examine its
probable meaning.
http://beirutntsc.blogspot.
com/2011/03/blue-by-you.html

Youmna Zod, on Marketing in
Lebanon, gives a short presentation
on an online tool still way too
underappreciated by Lebanese
marketers: Twitter. “Watch and
learn [from Twitter],” she says.
We couldn’t agree more.
http://www.marketinginlebanon.
com/2011/02/why-twitter-usersare-better-marketeers.html

You can’t see them but the scars from verbal
Everything in town at the turn of a page
abuse are real and can last for years.
Client: Batelco Directory Advertising Agency: FP7/BAH, Bahrain Creative Director:
Don’t suffer in silence
Fadi Yaish Art Director: Supparat Thepparat Agency Integrated producer: Mar Wai May
Advertising Agency: Y&R, Dubai, UAE
Photographer: Surachai Puthikulangkura Illustrators: Surachai Puthikulangkura,
Creative: Shahir Zag, Kalpesh Patankar
Supachai U-Rairat Producer: Anotai Panmongkol
Photographer: James Day
These ads (and more) can be found at adsoftheworld.com

LABOR OF LOVE
Nine months is a long time.
Eighteen months is twice as
long and that’s how long the
gestation period is for elephants.
Coincidentally, 18 months is how
long it’s been since Exotica was
declared a perennial favorite
of Beirut Drive-by. Welcome
back Exotica!

HEALTHY CHOICE
Is there a link between brain
tumors and cell phone usage?
Luckily, even with “deals” from
mobile providers, the rates are
still so high that most Lebanese
limit their usage. Thanks Alfa
and MTC for keeping us healthy.

TOP 10 THINGS WOMEN WANT
Here’s a hint. It’s not a big,
black, shiny spider with
really long legs.

THE PERFECT BRIDE
Barbie – the perfect inspiration
for your special day.